Barry Youth battle but lose out to top-of-the-league Abercynon (From Barry And District News)

Barry Youth battle but lose out to top-of-the-league Abercynon

7:00am Thursday 17th January 2013 in Sport

ABERCYNON YOUTH 45pts BARRY YOUTH 3

THE BARRY Rugby Club Youth side found themselves away to top of the league and unbeaten Abercynon on Saturday. Fielding a rearranged side due to missing players, youngsters Josh Taylor and Mitchell Scott made their first starts for the Youth and did not disappoint. With only one prop out of three available, the scrums had to be passive for safety reasons.

The match kicked off on time but, by the time the water boy had half finished topping up the bottles, Barry were seven points down - poor tackling and good off loads by the opposition being the cause.

Barry quickly hit back with a nicely taken penalty by Jordan Flynn putting them on the scoreboard, but this was to be their first and last points of the afternoon. Barry competed well in the loose and mauls which took them close to the opposition line on numerous occasions and, on one of these drives, they touched down but the referee frustratingly deemed it held up.

Barry line-outs were failing, having no props to lift, and missing main jumper and captain Luke O’Sullivan, who was again on first team duty, did not help.

Abercynon had an explosive and talented outside-half who cut through defence systems at will. His off loads to support which was always available put their attacks on the front foot and made Barry’s tackling desperate. Soon the home side were another seven points up.

Just before the interval, Barry found themselves cluttered in defence close to the touchline, a 30ft ring could have encompassed the whole team and, with no defence out on the left flank, Abercynon took advantage when they ripped the ball from a Barry maul and spun it wide for a 21-3 lead at half time.

From the off, the Abercynon No 10 made one of his breaks and he cut through effortlessly for seven points. Within minutes, the same player chased a kick forward by his scrum half and luckily caught a skewed bounce that should have been nowhere near him; the flat footed defence were powerless to stop another seven points.

Barry retained ball well and had Abercynon under pressure for long periods of time but could not turn possession into points. Abercynon, however, were ruthless with their possession and never wasted it; their finishing was skilful and clinical and soon an unconverted try pushed the score even higher.

Barry didn’t crumble as the score suggests but fought to the bitter end and, at the end, Dave Evans, playing at full back, unceremoniously dumped the No 10 danger man who was off on one of his jaunts only to see the ball dislodged into the waiting hands of the attacking flanker who passed to the winger for another five points.

Abercynon had it all this day - pace, skill, a lively No 10 and the luck of the bounce.

Barry: Blake Wall, David Evans, Mathew O Sullivan, Brad White, Josh Taylor, Brad White, Lucas Davies, Rhidian Mepham, Tom Adams, Kieran Davies, Sion Vidal, John Miles, Emyr Byrne, Jake Goodfellow, Jordan Flynn, Mitchell Scott and Cambell Prosser.